I can't see Toulouse adding much to the comp, we need to grow from the heartlands step by step, adding another club thats not going to bring any away fans won't be a popular move amongst existing clubs.

It won't be a popular move among existing clubs, especially the two clubs that are dropped from Super League. But the demoted clubs will be weak businesses led by a sorry bunch of incompetents who can't even get a stadium built after six years of warnings and let offs.

We already have Harlequins in Super League and Les Catalans Dragons in Super League. Neither bring away supporters to the M-62 corridor grounds , but they do offer some important advantages to the game, including the glamour of being situated in the cosmopolitan locations of London and southern France. And in these locations they have produced new playing talent for England and improved the exisiting playing talent of France. Think of Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Tony Clubb, Thomas Bosc, David Ferriol, Jean Phillippe Baile and Jamal Fakir.

Harlequins has been very important in promoting the game in the south, such that London and the Southeast is now the fourth biggest area of junior recruitment in the United Kingdom.

Toulouse joining Super League will have several advantages: it will spread the game further in a major European metropolitan area that is twice as big as Leeds - spread in terms of spectators and junior recruitment. That spread of the game will have an add on effect on the performance and French public support for the French national team. A stronger French national team means a stronger international competition, which means more sponsorship of the game and more money for the clubs at all levels.

It will also help the Sky and BBC TV ratings. Let us look at the relevant evidence of rugby union competitions. How many people watch TV telecasts of the Heineken Cup, where Toulouse compete, compared with telecasts of the England only Guinness Premiership, where Toulouse do not compete?

We already have Harlequins in Super League and Les Catalans Dragons in Super League. Neither bring away supporters to the M-62 corridor grounds , but they do offer some important advantages to the game, including the glamour of being situated in the cosmopolitan locations of London and southern France.

Haha!!!!!!!!!!!

How do you measure glamour?

Who gives a t*ss whether RL is played in Southern France or a "cosmopolitan" area of London? How is this an advantage to the sport? Does this mean that playing in less affluent areas is a disadvantage to the sport?

Does this mean you think a team located in Dubai would be good for the sport? Florida?

Who gives a t*ss whether RL is played in Southern France or a "cosmopolitan" area of London? How is this an advantage to the sport? Does this mean that playing in less affluent areas is a disadvantage to the sport?

The TV viewers in London and the south of England give a toss. The soft core league fans from the south and casual viewers are more likely to watch a game that is not played only by parochial clubs from the M62 corridor.

QUOTE (PJT @ Aug 5 2010, 05:56 PM)

Does this mean you think a team located in Dubai would be good for the sport? Florida?

Yes.

Dubai would be good for a Middle Eastern Super League, which, if development is intensified there, one day could exist with the participation of several clubs from Lebanon and Morocco...and I would hope, eventually the big prize of Egypt. The new head of the RLEF is a man who has helped build rugby league into a significant sport in Lebanon.

Florida would be good for a future American Super League. Jacksonville, led by the legendary entrepreneur Spinner Howland, is already building for that eventuality.